Eckel: And the Sports Oscar goes to ...

Publicicty still of Dennis Hopper at Shooter in the movie Hoosiers. Hoosiers and Hopper won Oscars in Mark Eckel's Academy Awards for sports movies.imdb.com/MGM

Like millions of others last night I watched the Academy Awards, always have, although I think I boycotted them the year after Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture.

While watching the stars walk down the red carpet, I thought it might be nice to come up with Oscars for the sports fans, who other than going to see Silver Linings Playbook because the Eagles were a key to the film, didn’t get out to the local theater all that much last year.

With the help of a friend who likes both sports and movies as much as I do, here’s the nominations and award winners for the best Sports Movies of all time. Feel free to discuss and argue all you like, just like the real Oscars.

All the movies mentioned were movies about sports, not movies that happened to have sports as a backdrop, such as Silver Linings.

Here we go.

Best Supporting Actress in a Sports Movie
The nominees are . . .
• Barbara Hershey, Hoosiers, 1986
• Susan Sarandon, Bull Durham, 1988
• Marissa Tomei, The Wrestler, 2008
• Tatum O’Neil, The Bad News Bears, 1976
• Jenifer Tilly, Let it Ride, 1989
And the winner is . . .
In a bit of an upset, Marissa Tomei for her portrayal of “Cassidy’’ an over-the-hill stripper, trying to hold on to what she once was in the same vein as Mickey Rourke’s title character.

Best Supporting Actor in a Sports Movie
The nominees are . . .
• Burgess Meredith, Rocky, 1976
• Dennis Hopper, Hoosiers, 1986
• Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry McGuire, 1996
• Greg Kinnear, Invincible, 2006
• Joe Pesci, Raging Bull, 1980
And the winner is . . .
Dennis Hopper, as he almost always was, was brilliant as “Shooter’’ the town drunk, father and Gene Hackman’s assistant coach. How many high school coaches through the years have mentioned “the picket fence’’ and not “getting caught watching the paint dry.’’
An aside here: Kinnear was very underrated as Dick Vermeil in Invincible. You really thought you were watching Vermeil.

Best Actress in a Sports Movie
And the nominees are. . .
• Talia Shire, Rocky, 1976
• Cathy Moriarty, Raging Bull, 1980
• Hillary Swank, Million Dollar Baby, 2004
• Bonnie Bedelia, Heart Like a Wheel, 1983
• Geena Davis, A League of Their Own, 1992
And the winner is . . .
Hillary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald, a 30-year-old waitress and amateur boxer, whose desire it is to turn pro. Swank, who won the Oscar in ’04, balances her life scrapping for tips with her beauty in the ring and makes you laugh and cry along the way.

Best Actor in a Sports Movie
And the nominees are. . .
• Gene Hackman, Hoosiers, 1986
• Robert DeNiro, Raging Bull, 1980
• Robert Redford, The Natural, 1984
• Gary Cooper, The Pride of the Yankees, 1942
• Denzel Washington, Remember the Titans, 2000
And the winner is . . .
Robert DeNiro is as good of an actor as there ever was. He’s great in everything, except maybe those “Meet the Parent’’ movies. But his best work, even better than Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, was as boxing champ Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.

Best Sports Movie
And the nominees are. . .
• Hoosiers, 1986
• Raging Bull, 1980
• Rocky, 1976
• Slap Shot, 1977
• Hoop Dreams, 1994
• Seabiscuit, 2003
• The Wrestler, 2008
• Requiem for a Heavyweight, 1962
And the winner is . . .
Hoosiers. It’s not just the best sports movie, but one of the five best movies of all time (that’s a topic for another column). And if you agree and think the movie is great, you should read the book, The Greatest Basketball Story Ever Told: The Milan Miracle.